![]() ![]() But I digress!)ĭE: Wait, please digress! Can you tell me a little bit more about that study, and whether I need to scare myself before working out?ĪH: It was a wild one. As a classic study from the early 1960s put it, “psychology is a special case of brain physiology.” (That’s the study where they tested maximum strength after scaring the crap out of subjects by sneaking up behind them and firing a starter’s pistol in their ear. The big mistake is thinking that you can understand the body without including the brain’s input, or vice versa. ![]() ![]() It’s 100 percent both - kind of like the nature/nurture debate you tackled in The Sports Gene. the brain.ĪH: Exactly - it’s not all in your head, any more than it’s all in your muscles. My read of your work is that it’s more like a racecar, in that the machine definitely matters, but in focusing our research on the machine, we’ve often overlooked the driver - i.e. And as a journalist, of course, I’m a sucker for “Everyone always assumed X, but it’s actually Y” stories.ĭE: Ok but you’re also clear on the fact that this doesn’t just mean “It’s all in your head,” in the sense that physiology doesn’t matter. As a long-time runner, I was fascinated by the idea that it’s my brain, rather than my lungs or my legs, that holds me back. The paperback is just out, with a new afterword, so I invited Alex to chat about human limits and the mind-body connection.ĭE: How did you decide to take on this topic?ĪH: The initial spark was some research by a South African scientist named Tim Noakes, who proposed that we have a “central governor” in our brains that slams on the brakes before we reach our true physical limits. I’m glad Alex did, though, because I can’t imagine anyone having done it better. His bestselling book, Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, is, quite frankly, a book I wanted to write. program (in physics), and made his national team.įar from making him my annoying professional doppelgänger, it has made him one of my favorite writers. Except, unlike me, he actually finished his Ph.D. is basically the taller Canadian version of me: we’re close in age, and he was also a national level middle-distance runner who transitioned from science into writing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |